Partening and Reunion
by Cold as Ace
Summary: After the BattleCity Tournament, Yami Marik is sent into the Shadow Realm, but while he is mad at his lighter half, he can't help but want to go back home to make things right. As an opportunity presents itself he has the option of a lifetime. Will he manage to come back and how does Malik do without his darker half? Rated M for language and to be safe.


AN:

So, here we go. This is a reupload of my original Fanfiction from the 13th of March 2014. Needless to say, I did get better at writing since then. My English spelling got much better as well. So, I took the chance to edit. I also made some changes to the story itself. The general flow will be the same. Same original situation, same outcome, same key events mostly, but I wanted to approach some points a bit differently this time around.

This one, even though the old one had been rated T, will be rated M for language. The moment you realize how much swearing there is … about 6 years late. I really did like the word Fuck. Mostly because you can use the fucking word in almost every fucking part of a fucking sentence. I think I was very fascinated by that when I was younger.

The Pairing is Bronzeshipping a.k.a. Marik x Yami Marik. I will call the 'better' half Malik with an L just out of simplicity.

There is no graphic content in here.

Have fun reading. 

**(Yami) Marik's POV:**

Shit, here I sat now, in Shadow Realm, alone and unable to do anything. Fuck!  
And all just because SOMEONE changed his mind and decided to spare the pharaoh instead of letting me help him reach his goal. And I almost did it too.  
Well, in my Hikari's defence, I did lock him up so maybe he had a little bit of a point but banishing me was really overkill…  
No, I won't put myself down. It is his fault, and only his.  
Sadly, this determination didn't change how I just never could be mad at Malik. As idiotic as that move of my Hikari's might have been, I still couldn't help but love him, probably because of all the shit we went through together.  
After all, I was always there. I saw his childhood and what his father did, not that the rest of his family turned out much better.  
While our father locked us in and punished any little disobedience with over the top ferocity, nobody did anything to free his children.  
The mother was too fucking weak to stay alive. On second thought, I probably couldn't fault her for that, if faced with the option of witnessing that horror again or death I would choose the second too.  
However, Ishizu and Odion were definitely at fault for their own fate and also my Hikari's pain. They would've been old enough to get out at any time. Nobody would have sent them back into the underground tomb. Sadly, even when faced with the extreme violence in shape of their father or the obvious fear on Malik's face when the initiation ritual was explained to him, they still didn't take their youngest brother and left.  
Odion had been the best of the three family members, in my opinion, until I realized his presence was severely undermining my power. As a result, I could only act as a piece of armour. Take control only when being allowed to, not when I saw fit. As a result, when I finally could take action whenever I wanted, I took the chance and enjoyed all the freedom I could get, even if it meant locking my Hikari in for the time being. A starved man will eat until his stomach bursts. That is what I had done. I was starved for freedom, and now I realized, I had taken so much of it, that my lighter side felt the need to step in. But did he really have to send me to the Shadow Realm? Was it really my fault that I wanted to use the little chance I've had these last days to taste my freedom?

Fuck him, fuck his family, fuck the Shadow Realm, the millennium Items, the pharaoh, the world and most of all, fuck my damn poor excuse of a life.

Since time and Shadow Realm was always a tricky combination, I couldn't tell how long it was before I could greet my first guest. If felt like ages though.  
At first, I didn't even realize he was there, I just suddenly had this uneasy feeling and even then it took me some time to realize that the shadow in front of me was not part of the general environment but rather a humanoid figure.  
It took me another double take to recognize him, and I immediately wished I had ignored him further. My thoughts were dark enough already even without Father standing in front of me. Now since I couldn't ignore him anymore, I decided on another course of action. If you can't ignore a person, ignore the problems you have with them. I struggled for a semi friendly tone.  
"Hi dad. How're you doing?" I asked.  
"Hello, son." He said coldly. Apparently, he did not try to ignore the things between us. Since it was death and a few years in Shadow Realm I could kind of see where he was coming from. Jet, I couldn't help but mentally kick myself for not just keeping it at murder. If he had been only dead and not with his soul trapped, I wouldn't have him here right now.  
I sighed and asked, resigning "What do you want?"  
It wasn't like I could do anything about his presence short of holding my ears shut and going 'la la la' like a 5year old. Not that it would have done anything. Since Shadow Realm didn't really operate on the concept of soundwaves, I would've heard him anyway and on top of that it would've destroyed my hairstyle and since there was no styling gel down here to be found, that would be a pity. If I had to suffer for eternity, I at least wanted to look good for it.  
"You still need to be punished for what you did to me." The old man said.  
I rolled my eyes "For protecting your children from your cruelty? I doubt any human court would find me liable for anything on that front."  
"Good for me then, that this is Shadow Realm, and no one cares about what a human court would decide." The man said strictly in that tone of voice that let show through, that he was looking forward to what was coming next, and surely, he stepped closer and lay his hand on my forehead.

"Look at it like this, if you manage to learn from your mistakes, you might free yourself from this hell. Bearers of the Millennium Items are told to be able to sometimes." He chuckled before he sent me back into one of my first memories.

_The first time I became aware of my own existence, Malik's heart, and my home, was still light, but with my lacking knowledge of time I can't say how long it took before it turned darker around me. I didn't really care. I liked the dark as well as I had liked the light. It took a while for me to start listening in on what was said around us and even longer until I tried to snatch a peek outside through my Hikari's eyes. Unfortunately, all those small things took a lot of effort, so I tried to keep them rare, only when I felt his heart, my home, tightening around me. Those were the instances in which I needed to know what was happening. Over the time I even sometimes managed to talk to Malik if he was up for it.  
The talks we tended to have were rare and rather one sided, with me listening to what was bothering him and offering my compassion. It was enough for me. I soon came to know that this wonderful being that I seemed to be a part of was everything I would ever need to live a rather happy life, at least for the time. It wasn't like I was strong enough to do any more anyway.  
It was when Malik got a hold of the Millennium Rod for the first time that I was suddenly washed over by a wave of strength. More than I knew I would ever need. Suddenly, talking to my Hikari became the easiest thing and I practically listened in on everything said and watched everything. Those new habits made it easier to protect this beautiful being that was my Hikari. I could take over his mind for the duration of the real painful things to happen. However, since he didn't downright hate his family, I didn't dare to act against them while I took over to bear the pain for him. I wouldn't take revenge until he wanted it taken. And even if I had wanted to, since we didn't possess the rod jet, I couldn't muster enough strength for anything effective anyway. The one little contact with the artefact had done a lot for my power reserves but not enough jet.  
With the initiation rite I was granted a reason in form of a never-ending sea of pain. I took over during the procedure more often than I would ever have thought I could. I endured as much of the pain as I could before I passed out. It was when I woke up that I realized. Apparently, I had much more energy than I had thought I could utilize. In turn that opened a lot of possibilities. Most important to me, was the possibility to spare Malik from ever having to live through something like this again, I only had to further my available power so next time I wouldn't pass out, and I knew I would do anything to protect this wonderful being that was my lighter side.  
It was only after our little excurse to the outside that Malik started to feed me energy on his own. I felt his resentment for his situation and while I would have preferred for him to not feel it, it did serve the purpose of getting my strength to the next level. It was also then that I learned how to connect to his thoughts and memories, which taught me a lot about this world that I still felt I was new to. It built up the starts of the mind link that allowed me now to be in constant contact with him without a problem. It also gave me the ability to form my first own coherent thoughts. Everything before than had been pure emotion, now I could think in logical sentences and I found I had a talent for strategy. So when a wave of fear hit Malik at seeing his father almost kill Odion and then turn on Malik himself and our sister, it only took me the fraction of a second to take over, grab the Millennium Rod which I knew was capable of granting me a lot of power and then started the experimentation. First, I wished for Maliks father not to move, and the dark powers of the artefact made it so. Then I wished for his very essence to leave. This took a lot more effort than I had expected, but I managed. After this I was gripped by some mixture of what might be described as fear and a manic phase. In my fear of the man to come back to himself, I proceeded to stab him with the Millennium Rod that conveniently turned out to hold a hidden stake. I then scanned through the room, desperately trying to make out whoever would be another threat to my light and while I still liked Odion, he was a big muscled man and right now he lay on the ground unmoving, so I figured I should seize the opportunity.  
It was then that Malik started to struggle against me. It was sudden enough to overwhelm me, so I was kicked back into the depts of his heart. It was only then I started to listen to the mind link again. I had scared my Hikari, even though at the same time he saw what happened as a good thing._

This was where the memory stopped. My vision cleared, and I looked into the face of the man that had called himself our father. Knowing that this man had always been able to only see his side and apart from the pleasure it seemed to give him had always been oblivious to his children's feelings and mental health, I also knew what he wanted to hear. And I knew how easy a victim could have it, if they just said what the interrogator wanted to hear.  
I stayed quiet until he asked the one question.  
"Did you learn, boy?" he asked with a smug grin.  
I nodded. "I shouldn't have made a move against you. Your way of raising your children was not mine to criticize especially since I don't have any experience with it myself." I answered. I still would have done the exact same thing if I could do a retake on that decision, but that was something he didn't need to know.  
The old man nodded sternly, then rose to his feet, turned, and left without another word. Fucking best thing I saw so far, my father finally leaving me alone.

The ensuing quiet was as peaceful as any situation within the Shadow Realm could get, and it lasted for way too short. Soon I had a visitor again. I started to see a pattern here, however this one was less bad and more annoying. Very annoying to be clear. And this very annoying individual was Bandit Kieth. I knew from the second we met him that it would get hard to find anyone more annoying than this American grown man that still acted like a 3-year-old. I rolled my eyes.  
"Yo dude." The god of annoyance in person greeted.  
"What do you want?" I asked, just wishing to get him out of my hair as quickly as possible.  
"Well I was told that if one had a problem with you, one could just come here and see if you saw the errors of your ways so. Basically, like, I am your next memory to mull over." He explained.  
I just shook my head to that. "You are not a memory; you are a person connected to a memory." I explained.  
"Yeah whatever, just remember that you need my forgiveness to get out of here." Kieth told me with a smug grin. I decided not to point out that I merely had to watch a memory and state that I learned from it to get everything with him settled.  
I was about to say some other thing, but before I could I was hit by the memory.

_Over the years I had learned to even project my body into the vision of my lighter side via the mind link. It even rewarded me with a limited ability of feeling physically.  
I stood currently next to Malik on the edge of our yacht, talking to him when he suddenly raised his hand.  
"Shh. Do you see that?" he asked motioning to the wide ocean.  
First, I was about to ask what he meant but then I spotted the small dark spot swimming on the ocean.  
"Hm, something is swimming there." I acknowledged.  
Malik nodded and turned to order the captain to steer nearer to the thing. It didn't take long for us to get near enough to realize it was a person. I threw my Hikari a begging look.  
"Please, don't."  
"Please don't save a human being from drowning?" he chuckled.  
"Come on, it is none of our business. He could be totally deserving of it. Looking at how he dresses, he is deserving death." I begged.  
"Marik, this is a human being. We will not let him drown. Also, we surely could use him. He has a duellist glove on from the Duellist Kingdom, meaning he can play Duel Monsters." My lighter side argued while throwing a ring down to the man.  
"Please, reconsider. He probably doesn't even understand us." I pointed out as a last-ditch effort.  
"Since we are talking ancient Egyptian most of the time, that would go for almost everyone. But let me let you in on a secret, he might not understand Egyptian, but we understand and speak English." He explained with a grin.  
Exasperated I threw my hands in the air. "By the gods, fine. But I'll warn you, he will be more of an inconvenience than useful."  
With that I left him to his business and went back to my soul room, that I over time had decorated in my vision of perfection. A gigantic desert. Sun, endless skies and no walls to contain me. I was not sure jet if I should already feel sorry for my Hikari's chosen work or if I should give it some time.  
Over the next few days, my lighter side was so sickeningly sweet with his newest toy, I found it more than wonderous that Mr. Bandit didn't realize that Malik wanted something from him. However, the longer this sweet period went on, the more exhausted Malik seemed to be.  
After a few days I decided to put my foot down. I knelt down in front of where Malik sat and rested my crossed arms and chin on his lab.  
"You do see how this isn't working right?" I asked.  
"Yeah, well. I will have to deal with it until he's ready to go." Malik sighed.  
"Why wait that long?" I asked, a little confused. It couldn't be that he hadn't thought of it himself.  
"What are you talking about?" Malik's exhaustion was clear on his face.  
"A soulless passenger is a content passenger." I pointed out.  
"You mean, steal his soul now, and have him on standby?" Malik wondered. Apparently, he really hadn't thought of it jet.  
I nodded.  
"Maybe, but he is a duellist. Stealing his mind just like that would feel wrong." Malik wondered.  
"Then duel him. Or better, let me duel him in the shadows. I could use some fun." I offered.  
Malik gave a lopsided smile then called for Mr. Kieth and let me take over.  
About 15 Minutes later the shadows retreated and I gave control back to my Hikari who just looked at the empty shell in front of him that once had been Bandit Kieth.  
Slowly a grin spread over his face. "This is much more comfortable." He chuckled, and I couldn't help but feel a wave of love wash over me at seeing him genuinely happy for the first time since Kieth had set foot onto our boat._

I blinked several times, a sudden pang of sadness enveloping me at the memory. We had both been happy once. What had changed? Why had my lighter half abandoned me?  
"So, what'd you learn?" Kieth ripped me out of my thoughts.  
Again, knowing what people wanted to hear was a good thing here.  
"I am sorry. I was wrong. I should have never sent you to the shadow realm. I shouldn't have duelled you in the first place. It was such an honour to be allowed that and I spoiled it by turning it into a game of shadows." I said, doing my best to strike a begging tone in my voice.  
Kieth thought it over for a second, but then nodded.  
"Fine, I might not forgive you, but this is a start. A good one for a brat like you." He said and got up to leave me alone.

It wasn't long again until the next visitor came over. This times it where Rare Hunters, one after the other. Some I remembered, others I knew I had forgotten during my duel with Mai Valentine. However, I had a hard time feeling sorry for them, in those memories the things that were of value to me where the exact reasons why I had always loved my Hikari and why I couldn't be mad at him. The more memories I went through, the more I missed him and slowly I was beginning to wonder if Malik felt as ripped apart as I did.

In the end though, life had one more surprise for me. A surprise in the form of the pharaoh himself.  
"So, did you learn?" he asked calmly.  
I couldn't get myself to lie to him, for whatever reason. Maybe it was his calm voice.  
"They all did one or the other thing to deserve a punishment. The only one who didn't deserve anything of the kind was Malik." I told him.  
"So, Mai deserved what happened to her simply for duelling you?" he asked, one eyebrow raised. I thought about that. Mai, Joey, Odion or the ghost of the millennium ring had not been here but remembering them I had to shake my head.  
"I maybe overdid it with the last few duels." I accepted.  
"You overdid it with every single one of these people, but yes, the last ones were really overkill." The pharaoh explained, "However, I had to learn the balances of this world too. It takes time."  
I looked at the man in total disbelieve.  
Pharaoh Atemu sighed. "Tell you what, we're having a duel. Every time you lose life points you will feel the pain you put your victims through and if you win, I'll get you out of here." The man offered with a grin. "Beating me won't be easy though."  
"I almost did it once, I can do it again." I chuckled and accepted.

**Malik's POV:**

Laying on my bed I started once again to recall everything that had happened without crying. This was pathetic, every time I started, I lost track and thought about other things instead, like all the good things my Yami had done for me and it brought me to tears. So again, from the start.  
I had taken over my body and gave up the duel in order to let the Pharaoh win. It was only after a few minutes that I realized I had banished my darker side with the same exact move. I couldn't even really say why I had changed my mind about the pharaoh, just that I did and that suddenly I was feeling sick whenever I thought about what my Yami and I had done to all those people. Maybe seeing the absolute brutality Marik had used on Mai, Bakura and Joey had shaken me enough to reconsider. Either way, I realized to late that now he was gone.  
I had successfully kept it together in front of Yugi and his friends, even making the time to handing over my Item and explaining everything I knew about the pharaoh and showing them the scars on my body that was the story of the god cards. After that I struggled to keep it up for another few minutes, just enough to have my sister leave me alone in my room where I then collapsed on the ground and cried my eyes out. I felt like half of my self was gone, considering that Marik had been my alter ego that probably wasn't so far off.  
It took me some time to move to the bed. After a few hours my sister came to visit me again.  
"Malik?" she asked on the door after knocking. I quickly checked myself out in the mirror. My eyes were a bit puffy, but not much more.  
"Come in." I said then loudly, doing my best to sound happy. It was after all what everyone expected of me. The irony struck me now. I had spent my childhood doing what was expected of me and hating it, resulting in the existence of my darker side, and now that he was gone, I was immediately falling back into these old bad habits.  
Ishizu entered and smiled at me. "We were thinking about having a little celebration, since now you are finally free of the shackles of the evil in your heart. Bakura however insisted we should ask you first if you wanted it. Apparently, the long time out of control of your body can exhaust someone?" she wondered, sounding sceptical. Even though I had no idea if the boy had done it on purpose, I gladly took his excuse.  
"He's right. The place I was at was a lot like Shadow Realm. I honestly just want to sleep. Sorry." I excused myself, putting an embarrassed grin on my face. My sister looked at me surprised.  
"Oh, I didn't think it was true. Well, then maybe we'll celebrate when you're feeling better." She gave in with a smile and hugged me.  
"I am glad to have my brother back." She told me before she left.  
After she was gone, I thought I would have my peace and quiet, but no. It didn't take long for me to be interrupted in my wallowing in self-pity again. This visitor was much less polite than my sister, and looking back, he also was much more welcome. The 'good' Bakura came in quietly and quickly, closing the door behind him before he sat down on my bed next to me, not saying anything just being there. I kept the quiet up for a few minutes, but it seemed the British had more patience and endurance than me.  
"What is it you want Bakura?" I asked.  
He chuckled. "First of all, you can call me Ryou. I have no idea why everyone is only taking my last name. I know my darker side used to call himself only Bakura, but that would very distinctly make me Ryou." I nodded understanding. "Apart from that, I wanted to see if you're okay." He admitted.  
"Why, my evil side is gone, I am free, everything is fine." I lied.  
"And that is why you've been crying? Your eyes are red." Ryou pointed out with an apologetic smile. "Listen, I have lost my darker side a few times now. I know what it feels like."  
I froze and stared at the boy. "How did you get him back?" I asked.  
"Let's see. First time was back in Duellist Kingdom. I made him lose a shadow game against the other Yugi. I felt so bad, but it didn't even take him an hour to be back. He has a strong connection to the Millennium Ring, and I had kept that, also since technically he was dead already a little trip to the graveyard didn't do much for him. He was so mad at me for it he refused to talk to me… until we were enclosed in a tunnel and I was running from a boulder. I apologized to him about a thousand times while running, he then told me to just stop running to prove it. Turns out the boulder was a balloon and he knew it. Then he helped us navigate out of the tunnel system. That half hour without him was hell, the time he didn't talk to me was even worse." Ryou recounted.  
"I understand. I took in Bandit Kieth against my Yami's wishes. He went back to his soul room to have me deal with that idiot alone and all the time I was worried he'd hate me now." I chuckled recounting the fonder memories, while tears rolled down my face again. "How else did you lose Bakura?" I wondered then.  
"The second time was in Duellist Kingdom too. He was still mad at me and Tristan said something about getting Mokuba's soulless body, he figured it was a good idea, locked me into the ring while he took over. Long story short, he terrified Tristan so much, that Tristan took the ring with me still in it and threw it away. Being enclosed in only the ring was a nightmare, but again, Bakura is linked to the ring, so when he called upon the rings power it came back to him, reuniting us. He never apologized for it, but after that he at least didn't talk about other soulless bodies anymore. That was also the day he took Pegasus' Eye for himself." I hung on Ryou's lips as he told me all that.  
"Wait, you have the eye?" I asked, remembering that my sister had had a panicked talk with Odion about it over the phone when Shadi had contacted her to tell her the Eye had been stolen.  
Ryou nodded. "It is also the reason why I didn't fully loose him after his duel with your other side. It took him some time to catch up his strength after that duel and he wouldn't let me wake up so your other side wouldn't get any ideas. No matter, I was too weak after the duel with Yugi anyway."  
"Oh, so … he's with you?" I asked. Ryou nodded again. I was quiet for a while.  
"Do you think I can get mine back too?" I asked then.  
"In theory yes. However, I think for that it would take the other Yugi, the pharaoh, helping out." Ryou wondered. Tears rolled down my face once more. Why the hell was I not stopping to cry? Shouldn't I by now be out of tears?  
"That will never happen." I gave up.  
"Well, maybe if I talk to Yugi… Yugi is my friend and he doesn't need to agree, only his other side needs to listen…" Ryou figured. "It will take time though. I'll promise I will do my best." Apparently, Ryou had already made up his mind about it. I had no idea what to say, so I hugged the young brit instead.

Over the course of the next days, my talks with Ryou where my highlight. I neglected to eat and I very rarely left my room, not wanting a lengthy talk about how great my life was right now, considering I felt more like ending it, but Ryou, with his unlimited understanding for me and my situation and with his genuine efforts to make things better and help, was becoming a good friend fast. After a week, he came in with a grin.  
"What is it now?" I asked, slightly worried about that look on his face. Unbeknownst to many, Ryou seemed to be a little trickster. He had a talent for playing pranks and then playing them off as someone else's idea. "Please tell me you did not draw a penis on Joeys forehead while he was asleep and write 'Tristan was here' next to it." I begged. Ryou froze and his grin got even wider.  
"No, but that is a brilliant idea."  
I groaned and let my head sink into my hands. "Don't do that." I warned him.  
"Anyway," Ryou changed the subject "I came here to tell you that the other Yugi agreed to get your Yami back, under a few conditions. He has to go through a few memories of his victims, and after that he has to agree to and win a duel against the pharaoh, which at first I found problematic, until Bakura was kind enough to remind me that your other side had almost won against the pharaoh once before." I listened… and then I was quiet for a few seconds, processing what had just been said. This was a chance. Sure, Marik wouldn't like it, but even if he lost the duel, he already was in Shadow Realm. The situation couldn't get worse and as pointed out by Bakura so conveniently, Marik did have a realistic chance of winning the duel. Slowly I started to smile. It was just a slither of hope, but it was something. I then jumped up from my seat and hugged Ryou tightly. I felt him pat my back and heard him whisper. "Can't breathe." So, I let him go.  
"You are the absolute best." In ensured him.  
"Now, you wait with that for a few days until we know if your other side is back or not." Ryou chuckled. "And you really need to eat Malik. You are already thin enough. What energy does your body operate on? Because there has been not much fat to even begin with." Ryou shook his head like a disappointed mother. I couldn't help but laugh at that.  
"I'll have something for dinner. I promise.

Now knowing that my other side could be back at any given point in time, I started to feel the cold in my room at night even more. I had never liked the cold, which was one of the reasons I had always liked Marik. He had always been warm. I felt warm when he made his presence known, and when I touched him through the mind link his skin was always burning. In my memory I could only find one incident where he hadn't felt warm to me.

"_Come on, everyone's sleeping. If we get out now, they won't keep us." Marik had said while luring me to the stairs that led out of the tomb and into the hot Sahara Desert. While I had assumed that with my father's death, we would all finally be free to leave, it had turned out my sister wanted to stick to the customs our father had taught us. I looked left and right before I quickly ran across the hallway and up the stairs. Opening the doors, we stepped outside and I breathed in the fresh air. It was good but… cold.  
Opening my eyes I saw darkness. It was night, and my beloved sun had left the plains before me.  
"Don't worry," Marik said, stoking over my cheek, feeling my sadness. "The sun will rise and tomorrow it will be warm, and light and we will be free." He told me, telling me my favourite fairy-tale. The one that was about to become reality. I nodded and started walking straight into the desert. I just needed to get as far away from the tomb as I could. That tomb had been my prison for too long. Now I was ready for a life that was just mine. Old scriptures where replaced by my dreams and wishes, old customs by my goals and the only thing that I was prepared to take along for the ride from my old life, was the other person in my body that had helped me through it all.  
When, finally, I couldn't walk anymore, I sat down in the sand, Marik sitting down next to me. He had become very consistent with his use of the mind link over time. He was grinning, I realized.  
"What's so funny?" I asked confused.  
"Nothing, Hikari, I just like seeing you happy for once. Really happy." He chuckled and pressed a kiss to my cheek. "You should smile more often."  
After that we sat in the sand quietly, looking at the stars above us. When the cold of the night got to me I slung my arms around myself.  
"We could switch. The Soul Room is probably warmer." Marik offered. I nodded and found myself in my soul room a second later. Sadly, my soul room looked a lot like my room at home and I really didn't want to remember that part of my past, or any of it for that matter. Instead of staying there, I left my room and entered Marik's. I had no idea if I was welcome there, but the warmth coming from that door lured me in. Upon opening the door, I suddenly stood in a version of the desert our body was in, in broad daylight. I basked in it and lay down in the sand. Since a soul couldn't burn, I didn't bother with searching for shade. Thinking of how a soul room always represented the soul it belonged to, I finally started to understand why I loved that other part of my self so much. He was as beautiful and perfect to me as this desert. Warm sunshine and no walls to enclose me. At some point I slept in dreaming of the freedom I was about to gain and of shaking off the last shackle that was my obligation to a pharaoh that would probably not even walk the earth during my lifetime. I had to find the millennium puzzle, I decided. If I became the pharaoh myself, I wouldn't be obligated to anyone but myself.  
When I slowly came to, I felt my Yami's presence next me, surprisingly cold. First, I fully expected him to be mad at me for trespassing into his Soul Room. Instead when I opened my eyes, he just lay next to me, shivering. I touched his shoulder and shrugged back at the feeling of his ice like skin. It must be really cold out there if he was freezing like that. I had read somewhere that one shouldn't sleep when you're freezing, so I shook him awake.  
"Marik?" I asked carefully. Slowly, ever so slowly he opened his eyes, and then sat up with a start just to immediately begin coughing. I enclosed him in my arms trying to warm him up at least a little. We sat there for a while until he caught his breath.  
"If we're both here, who's controlling the body." Marik asked suddenly. I had no answer to that and just shrugged.  
"That means we're sleeping I think." He wondered. Sleeping… in the cold. I jumped to my feet.  
"I'll take control. We can't sleep or our body will freeze to death." I said in a rush, but before I left, I just had to kiss his cheek.  
I took control just as someone was bending down over me. I came awake with a shriek, before I realized it was Odion.  
"Malik. We were worried about you. What are you doing out here so far away from home?" he asked. I did some quick thinking and realized I only had two options. Odion wouldn't leave. It was either I go back home with him or I take him with me somewhere else.  
"That is not my home. It is a prison and I will not go back. Come with me, well go somewhere warm and open. We'll ride motorcycles and play games without snakes biting our ankles. We can do so much outside of that cave." I tried to win him over. Odion looked unsure, so I let him mull it over, just looking at him strictly. I would stand my ground. I would not go back.  
Finally, he nodded, and we made our way to the next town where Odion organized for a room in some small hotel. When Marik was finally awake again, he was a bit mad about me not consulting with him on the 'Odion-Problem', as he put it, but eventually he accepted._

I nodded, that was the only time Marik ever was cold. When he was in a physically bad state. I wondered if he was cold now, in Shadow realm.

**Marik's POV:**

As I looked around and found my Soul Room around me, a bit colder and duller than I remembered I started laughing while my legs gave in under me. Pharaoh Atemu had kept his word, we had duelled, and I had won, and now I was home. He had neglected to tell me that I wouldn't just feel my victims' pain but sustain actual damage to my soul as well, however. So now I dropped to my knees with cuts and bruises all over my body. It hurt, but it wasn't the worst I had ever felt. What was worse was the lack of energy. Travelling between the realms was not an easy thing and all the damage took even more energy to heal.

That was why I decided to sleep first and get my Hikari's attention when I was feeling a little better.

**Malik's POV:**

I was about to sleep in when the slightest hint of a presence shook me up. I didn't dare hope, mostly because it seemed consumed by so much pain I couldn't properly put where it belonged to. On a whim I decided to at least try to access my Soul Room.  
Wouldn't you know it, the next moment I stood in the small stone walled bedroom. I looked around and the only thought beyond my growing hope was that I really needed to redecorate in here.  
I opened my door and found the familiar one across the hall. It seemed colder than I remembered which worried me, but if I could open it, that would mean…  
I tried the handle and even though it seemed to be stuck a little, I managed to open it. Standing in this familiar desert I breathed in and had to fight tears of joy. It was then that I looked around and found my Yami laying under a palm tree with the white sand stained with the slightest hint of red under him. It had my heart skip a beat both in fear and joy. I ran to him and knelt down. As he didn't move, I was about to panic, instead I mentally called myself to order and told myself to check if he was breathing. Focusing on his wide chest I saw it moving up and down, which was a relieve, however, the cuts and bruises where a kick to the gut. I fought myself for a while but in the end I figured it was better to know what exactly I was working with, so I pulled his shirt up. Or I attempted to, as soon as I moved it just a bit, my wrist was enclosed and held still.  
"Don't. You're crying enough as it is." Marik warned. Hesitantly I let go of his shirt and brushed my tears off with my free hand.  
"How?" I asked.  
"Had to duel the pharaoh to get out. This was the prize for losing life points." My other side explained. Now I really didn't even bother with brushing the tears off anymore.  
"Stop crying over pain that isn't yours." Marik told me while shifting closer to me and laying his head in my lab.  
"It might not be my pain, but it is my fault. I sent you to the shadow realm for Ra's sake." I sobbed. "You must hate me so much for this."  
"I would never hate you, Malik. Never. I might be disappointed or angry, but I do not hate you." My Yami told me, raising a hand to take over the tear wiping duty I had neglected.  
"How angry are you?" I asked carefully.  
"Let's say it will take a little work to forget about it." He answered with a lazy grin.  
"What kind of work?" I asked sceptically.  
"Let's see, the body is practically starving, and I have very little energy left. Is that how it goes? I leave for a day and you stop eating? You will get out there now, and you will eat anything you can find until you can eat no more, do we understand each other?" he said, playfully strict.  
"Yes Sir!" I saluted with a weak smile. With that I left the soul room and took control over my body. I had eaten a little bit for dinner as Ryou had asked me too, but now that Marik was back was the first time I realized just how hungry I really was. Therefore, I did as I had been told, and ate anything I could find until if felt I could eat not a single scrap more. Then I returned to my room and ran back into my Yami's soul room as quickly as I could.  
He already looked better, sitting in the sand grinning as he saw me returning. I took a breath and sat down in front of him. We were quiet for a few seconds, in which I mustered the remaining wounds on his body, at least the ones I could see. It turned out not just Ryou, but anyone was better at keeping the quiet than me. "I am so sorry. I didn't mean for any of this to happen." I blurted out suddenly.  
"It's-" I cut him off there.  
"I love you and I didn't mean for you to go to the shadow realm, I just took control and gave up to end that nightmare of a duel and I didn't think. I should've known that it would send you away but I didn't and then you were gone and I –" that was where he cut me off by pressing his lips to mine.  
"Now Hikari," he asked after he had kissed me into oblivion "will you give me the chance to talk?" I nodded, mainly because I couldn't concentrate enough to form words anyway.  
"I love you too, and a stupid mistake will not change that ever. I made my own mistakes over the last few months. What I did to the Pharaoh and his friends was overkill and I understand that you wanted it to end. Now can we please just forget that the last few weeks ever happened? Because I think I will never feel like talking about this ever again." Marik requested. I nodded again, indicating I understood. Funnily enough it was only after that, that his words took hold in my brain.  
"You love me too?" I asked, pleasantly surprised by that admission.  
"I am your Yami, of fucking course I love you, idiot." He chuckled while pulling me nearer for another breath-taking kiss. I cuddled closer to him, which had him hissing in pain.  
"Oh my, sorry I forgot about that." I apologized quickly.  
"Shut up, Malik. Honestly, I think I might want to strangle the Pharaoh next time I see him." Marik growled.  
"Considering he got you back, I'd recommend you don't." I pointed out, knowing full well that Marik had probably taken every hint of info he could get from my brain while I had been eating. I had no illusions about it, he knew Ryou and I had planned for this.  
"Mhm… I need to thank Ryou next time I see him though." Marik chuckled.  
"Good, just don't scare him off. I like him." I gave back, laughing.  
"Wouldn't think of it. In the end his Yami turns out to love him as much as I love you and I really don't want to visit the shadow realm again just because I scared that little British boy." Marik chuckled and lay down in the sand. After that he pulled me down and positioned my head on his shoulder, which didn't seem to bother him as much as the rest of his body. With a smile on my face I fell asleep.

Now everything was truly well in my life.

-The End-

AN: Hey, good thing you read through to the end.

Now, as mentioned above, this is a reupload and I had to make some changes to the story as well as the text. In my opinion this greatly improved the story, but if anyone wants to read the original one, with spelling mistakes and a real OOC Pharaoh and somewhat cringy writing, DM me and I'll send you a copy.

Apart from that, I hope you liked this, have a nice day and happy reading.


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